Author name: C-CAR

Following an internal probe, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department has imposed unspecified discipline on a veteran deputy who fatally struck a cyclist with his patrol car in Calabasas 15 months ago as he was typing on his in-car computer, officials said.

Deputy Andrew Wood hit and killed prominent entertainment attorney Milton Olin Jr. in the bicycle lane on Mulholland Highway on Dec. 8, 2013. Wood was returning from a fire call at Calabasas High School and was responding to a message from another deputy on his mobile digital computer at the time, authorities said.

Wood is still employed as a sheriff’s deputy, though he transferred from patrol to the courts division shortly after the incident, having made the request about a year earlier.

“I can’t get into the specifics about the administrative action taken because it’s a personnel matter,” department spokeswoman Nicole Nishida said. “Administrative action was taken, and he’s exercising his civil service rights … through the (county’s) Civil Service Commission.”

The commission serves as the administrative appellate body for employees “who have received major disciplinary actions, such as discharges, reductions, suspensions in excess of five days,” according to the commission’s website.

The discipline, which was imposed at the end of March, arose out of a sheriff’s internal affairs investigation that examined whether the 17-year veteran violated department policies in the collision. The internal probe, which has been described as a routine procedure following criminal investigations, was launched after the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office declined to file charges against the deputy in August.

Officials with the Association for Los Angeles Deputy Sheriffs, which represents more than 7,000 deputies and district attorney investigators working in the county, had no comment Thursday.

The decision on Wood’s discipline came just weeks after the department — the largest sheriff’s agency in the nation — implemented a new policy significantly curbing the use of mobile digital computers in patrol cars.

That policy, which was the department’s first explicit restrictions on such devices, now prohibits the use of mobile digital computers while driving unless the communication is urgent or necessary for officer safety or unless it is to hit one button to send a status update such as “en route” or “acknowledge.” Deputies are also required to rely on their radio as the primary mode of communication while driving, the policy states.

Previously, only general directives were issued on safe driving, including the need to employ defensive driving techniques to prevent a collision and avoid operating vehicles “in an unsafe or negligent manner.”

Distracted drivers of police cars, firetrucks and ambulances — who often spend a disproportionate amount of their time on the road — were to blame in collisions that killed Olin in 2013 and two Southland residents in 2012, according to data from the Statewide Integrated Traffic Records System that is run by the California Highway Patrol.

The number of crashes involving distracted emergency vehicle drivers who were at fault on public roads increased by more than 120 percent between 2003 and 2013, coinciding with a meteoric rise in technology, according to the data. The use of electronic equipment such as in-car computers was cited as a factor in at least 48 such collisions in 2013, up from some 26 cases in 2012.

Deputies are allowed to contest any discipline decisions with their division chief and, if they are not satisfied, request a hearing before the Civil Service Commission, said Sgt. Jospeh Jakl of the sheriff’s Risk Management Bureau.

“I can’t speculate on what he should get — it’s just very unfortunate,” Jakl said of Wood. “He will always have that in his mind that he caused the death of someone who was just riding their bike. I think that’s bad enough, and he has to live with that burden.”

Olin’s family filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the county, the Sheriff’s Department and the deputy in July. The case is in the discovery phase, and a trial date has been tentatively set for Jan. 19, said attorney Alan Van Gelder, who is representing Olin’s family.

The DA’s office declined to press charges against Wood in August, noting state law does not prohibit officers who are driving from using an electronic wireless communications device in the performance of their duties.

BREA >> A canyon road connecting Orange and San Bernardino counties was closed Saturday and would probably remain closed into Sunday morning after a vehicle crashed into a utility pole, snapping it and taking down power lines.

No one was injured when the vehicle left the road and slammed into the wooden pole about 10 a.m. on Carbon Canyon Road, also known as Highway 142, near Olinda Road, said Brea police Lt. Bill Smyser.

A utility crew was at the scene making repairs and both directions of the road were closed between Santa Fe Avenue and the county line, Smyser said.

That stretch of the road, a major commuter route on weekdays, wasn’t expected to reopen before 2 a.m., Smyser said.

POMONA >> A resident died after being hit by a car and the suspected driver was arrested after fleeing the scene, police said Saturday.

Lindsey Ann Prieto, 30, of Pomona was in a crosswalk at Garey Avenue and Rio Rancho Road about 8:30 p.m. Friday when she was hit by a vehicle, according to Pomona police. Paramedics pronounced her dead at the scene.

Witnesses described the vehicle to police, who tracked the car to a home in Ontario. Police did not provide the address, and it was not listed in the booking records of the man who was arrested — Christopher Acosta, 29, of Ontario.

Booking records indicate Acosta was arrested at the Pomona Police Department just before 2 a.m. Saturday.

He was booked into the Pomona jail on suspicion of felony hit and run causing injury or death, according to police.

Acosta’s bail was set at $50,000. He is scheduled to appear Tuesday in Pomona Superior Court.

Name: John Force

Title: NHRA Driver

Age: 65

A drag racing icon, Force’s excitable attitude is as combustible as the 7,000-horsepower funny cars he has driven to a record 16 championships. Reiterating that retirement is not in his vocabulary as recently as February, the Yorba Linda resident plans to add to the 141 national event victories during an unmatched career that has made him the face of his sport. His influence is only growing through his three drag racing daughters, one of which became the first female to win an NHRA event in 2008 and another that provided the 100th win for a female in 2014.

Top 50 Most Powerful in L.A. Sports

• Introduction

• Photo gallery of Top 50 Most Powerful in L.A. Sports

• Dramatic change in Los Angeles sports power structure

A Pasadena police officer was injured Monday afternoon when he was knocked off his motorcycle in Upland on the 210 Freeway just east of Euclid Avenue.

The Pasadena motor officer was taken to Arrowhead Regional Medical Center by way of helicopter, according to a news release from Pasadena Police Department. There was no indication of the extent of his injuries.

The department said the officer, who was not named, was traveling east in the carpool lane just before 5 p.m. when he collided with another vehicle driven by Jerry Gonzalez of San Bernardino. Gonzalez was not injured in the collision.

SAN DIMAS >> Marcus Colasuonno, a San Dimas High School junior, shook his girlfriend Hannah Doonan and pleaded for her to wake up, then shouted at best buddy Jacob Castillo to “stop fooling around.” But Jake, ejected from the back seat he shared with his now “unconscious” prom date Shelbie Moore, just moaned and didn’t move.

Silent and ashen-faced teens stood in front of the “accident” scene as victims of earlier fatal collisions.

“Grim Reapers” Al Martin and Casey Cox, flanking them, had pulled them from classes, the quad and playing fields at San Dimas High, their friends crying as their “obituaries” were read. They would spend the night at Sheraton Suites Fairplex in Pomona, isolated from their parents, families and friends until their “late lives” are celebrated at Tuesday morning’s memorial service in the school gym.

On Monday, 23 SDHS juniors and seniors played active parts in “Every 15 Minutes,” a program pioneered in 1995 by the Chico Police Department, to dramatically deliver the message to teens to avoid driving under the influence of alcohol and/or drugs. The 2-day exercise involves a simulated DUI-accident scene that law enforcement, fire, hospital, school and community officials, parents and students agree is “powerful, passionate and intense.”

“If the intensity makes one person make better choices, it’s worth the 24 hours of intense emotions for us,” said mother Janna Crowther to explain why she and husband Dan let daughter Elizabeth, 16, volunteer as one of the “living dead” or “victims” of earlier “fatal DUI accidents.”

Dan, however, froze when he saw Elizabeth standing, her face and limbs covered with ashen, white and red makeup to feign blood and death. “It’s not real, but it feels real,” the father lamented.

San Dimas Councilman Jeff Templeman, San Dimas sheriff’s station Deputy Kevin Utman and Bonita Unified School District administrator Melissa Neal introduced “Every 15 Minutes” to SDHS in 2001. It started small and expanded when the California Highway Patrol/Baldwin Park secured an Office of Traffic Safety grant and with generous donations from San Dimas Community Hospital, Los Angeles County Fire, Sheriff’s and Coroner’s departments, Sanders Towing, Cole-Schaefer Ambulance, Sheraton Suites Fairplex, the city of San Dimas and Bonita Unified School District. Templeman, SDHS Assistant Principal Rita Kear and Everette Wade, San Dimas sheriff’s school resource deputy, now coordinate the program involving multiple public safety and medical-response agencies.

Marcus wept as CHP officer Rodrigo Jimenez hand-cuffed him after he failed field sobriety tests given by Jimenz and sheriff’s deputies Debbie Iketani and Marcos Rosales. “Where are you taking me?” young Marcus hysterically asked as he watched the coroner cover and take Hannah’s “lifeless” body, firefighters ease Jake out of the car’s smashed back window, an unconscious Shelbie being gently placed on a stretcher and ambulance paramedics speed Shelbie to San Dimas Community Hospital.

“You’re going to jail. You just messed up your life,” Jimenez said as he arrested the 17-year-old for felony drunken driving, a charge that “claimed” two girls’ lives, “paralyzed” his best friend and left citizens Alta Skinner and Jamie Skinner Moreno “injured” in a second car.

Marcus, whose big brother Alex, now 21 and a business major senior at Arizona State University also volunteered for “Every 15 Minutes” in San Dimas, plans to major in biology at UC Santa Barbara. He said he volunteered to be the “drunk” driver to warn other teens to “not be dumb” in their choices and to think about what could happen if they drink, do drugs and then drive.

Veteran law-enforcement agents Wade and Jimenez and Templeman, a retired police administrator, said “Every 15 Minutes” is an effective deterrent against DUI-related accidents. Students Brianna Nunez, Danil Teren, Ryan Ocampo and Evan Celaya all said they don’t do drugs or alcohol whether they’re driving or not and felt “Every 15 Minutes” would stop other teens from doing so.

A woman died Saturday night after her vehicle ran off the roadway and down a steep embankment.

Colton police officers were dispatched about 6:09 p.m. to Barton Road, near Hill Top Drive, for a single vehicle collision, according to a Colton Police news release. A 2007 Hyundai Elantra had run off the roadway and rolled down a steep embankment, ejecting the female driver, who was the only person in the car.

The 57-year-old woman was transported to Loma Linda University Medical Center where she later died from her injuries, police reported.

The woman’s name is not being released, pending notification of next of kin.

NEEDLES >> A tour bus traveling from Laughlin, Nevada, to Ventura caught fire here Sunday afternoon, forcing all 52 passengers to evacuate.

The bus driver said he heard what sounded like a rear tire exploding and pulled the bus to the side of the road about 1 p.m., according to Dean Dickover, a San Bernardino County Fire Department spokesman.

The bus immediately caught fire and smoke filtered through the cabin.

Everyone escaped, however, one man became short of breath, Dickover said. Paramedics tended to him, and he declined a ride to a hospital. Three others suffered heat exhaustion and were treated by paramedics at the scene, near Needles Highway and the 40 Freeway.

Passengers were able to save most of their luggage before the bus became engulfed in flames.

The Fire Department said the $250,000 bus, belonging to a San Luis Obispo company, was just about a total loss.

Fire and Sheriff’s Department employees took the passengers to a storage lot and then to a restaurant while they waited an hour or so for a replacement bus to arrive from Las Vegas to take them home.

LONG BEACH >> On the 15th of 24 Pirelli World Challenge laps, Olivier Beretta was passed for the lead by Johnny O’Connell and Kevin Estrel fior the lead going into the fourth turn. However, by the time Beretta exited the right-handed turn, he was back in the lead and headed to his third win of the season.

Beretta of Monte Carlo, in a Ferrari took first in the crash-marred race, finishing ahead of Chris Dyson (who started 12) and Ryan Dalziel in the featured GT class. Beretta’s margin of victory was 0.999 seconds over Dyson, who was in a Bentley while Dalziel drove a Porsche and finished 1.488 seconds behind the winner.

By the fourth lap of the 50-minute race, two full course cautions had been exhibited. Full course yellows were also displayed after incidents on laps 10, 15 and 19 for the 40-car field.

That slowed the average speed to 56.409 mph and a total of 47.232 miles ovrer the 11-turn course.

“Each restart was a challenge,” said Beretta, who also explained the incident that won the race.

“There were three cars side-by-side with a tight corner,” Beretta said. “It’s a shame it had to happen.”

O’Connell and Estrel passed on the left, but Estrel’s McLaren clipped O’Connell’s Cadillac, which hit the wall and prevented Estrel from passing.

In GTA, Michael Lewis won for the fourth time in five events this season, taking the checkered flag in his Porsche ahead of Martin Fuentes (Ferrari) and Eric Lux (Mercedes). Lewis was fourth overall.

“It was pretty special to finish fourth,” said the Laguna Beach driver. “We were seventh and eighth throughout the race and we were pretty happy with that. I just wanted to survive, really.”

He said he had no close calls during the event that took 50 minutes, 14.291 seconds.

Colin Thompson was the GT Cup winner in a Porsche, ahead of Mitch Landry (Porsche) and Victor Gomez (Porsche). It was the first Long Beach event for Thompson, whose margin of victory was 10.360 seconds.

“I was just trying to survive,” said Thompson. “I was playing it safe, playing it smart. You can’t win the championship in one race, but you can lose it.”

Beretta, Lewis and Thompson all remained points leaders in their respective classes.